On Wednesday, January 3,, a threat was emailed to the state email account of a State House employee, according to a news release from the Maine Dept. of Public Safety. The threat was discovered at approximately 1:45 p.m.

At that point the Capitol Police temporarily shut down and evacuated the building. There were approximately 300 people in the building at the time. No one was injured.

Two K9 teams from the Maine State Police Bomb Unit responded to clear the building. There were no explosives found and the threat was deemed to be a hoax. The threat was similar to threats emailed to state offices across the country.

Assisting the Capitol Police was the Maine State Police, the Augusta Police Department, and the Augusta Fire Department.